The Case of the Smoke Detector that Would Not Stop Chirping

I might have taken a sledge hammer to it. They work for sign installation so I have them handy. Bravo for the solution!

OMG Kathleen, I am laughing so hard, this happened to me too and I did the same thing you did in the middle of the night. I hope you'll get some rest tonight.

Yes this is still too early to look back on it and laugh.  I'm not laughing and it didn't even happen to me.

Here's a great story for you...

A couple of years ago, we hosted a Christmas party for our small group from church. All our smoke detectors are hard-wired. When one goes off, they all go off. That's exactly what happened. We didn't have any smoke in the house. The smoke detectors aren't on an electrical breaker. This is so they can't be turned off at the breaker box. Anyhow, we couldn't figure out which one it was. There are 9 smoke detectors in the house. The noise was so loud, we thought we'd have to leave. After 15 minutes it stopped. We're hosting the party this year, Tom says no cooking allowed. We'll cater instead.

How terribly frustrating. Hope tonight is calm and quiet.

With the requirements for detectors rising, it is getting harder to just find the one that is chirping.  :)

Sleep Well Kathleen!

Many of us can relate to your story. The smoke detectors always seem to chirp during the night. 

Good morning Kathleen. I have been there, what a pain in the A$$. Both our homes have hard wired smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. When they work right, they are wonderful, but when this stuff happens, not so much.

Kathleen,

I think we have all had smoke detector issues at some point but I must say never as extreme as yours. Way to take care of it!!!

That sounds like a nightmare. One I think many of us have awakened to, maybe not to that extent though. Hope you caught up on some sleep.

Now that's pretty severe. I have had occasions when I wanted to cut out tongues and vocal cords, but that's another issue

You make me laugh! Reminds me of a story.  I went on a listing appt. to a couple in their mid 80's.  While I was there I heard their smoke detector battery and I said "do you hear that chirping - you know what that means?" and they both said - Yes - we have crickets.  They proceeded to tell me they paid an exterminator twice to come and kill the crickets.  :(   

UGH - I hate when people take advantage of the elderly. . . needless to say I took care of their "crickets" wiht a battery. . . I didn't cut wires.  :)

Kathleen, I agree that the chirping can drive you crazy.  When a battery needs changing in our house and the chirping starts, we have a time finding the smoke detector that needs changing...we have them all over the house.

Kathleen, I thought they chirped when they wanted a new battery.  But whatever, I have a hard time sleeping in a room without a smoke detector!

the white plastic section on the wires is actually a plug type aparatus. It seperates and disconnects the hard wire ..Im pretty sure, at least mine are that way. I laughed as I had to call the fire dept one time in the middle of night and stated clearly this was not an emergency but I was home alone and couldnt get mine to stop...told them we had small kids on my street sleeping so quietly arrive.  Minutes later a ladder truck comes roaring down my street.. all my neighbors ended up wandering in their jammies to my yard... It turned out dust particles and static activated it as we had just gone to running heat mode on HVAC that day.  ( atleast that is what the 8 firemen told me that charged thru my house !

I do hope you're laughing about this now, Kathleen.  I've had it happen twice with two different detectors.  Don't have a bird but my big brave alpha dog HATES the noise so much he has to climb all 40 lbs of himself into my arms like a little baby, LOL.  

Oh, and I loved Debbie Laity's idea of uTube - instant star!!!

I've had the same problem with (1) smoke detectors and the battery back-up to my sump pump.

When the battery to the sump pump got low, it started beeping.  I didn't hear or know it because it's in the basement and being half deaf, I didn't know it until I was showing a home buyer my finished basement as an example of one.  Of course, I heard it when in the basement.  Easy cure.  I simply unplugged the dang thing and hauled the battery to the land fill.

The smoke detector in my family room would go off whenever I used the fireplace.  That was a pain since they all go off. 

I just let the cherp until they all died and never replaced the batteries.

Problem solved. 

Now if I could just figure out how to reduce humidity in my basement so I didn't have to run that dehumidifyer and empty it when it's full. 

Finally, I recall an episode of Friends whereby Phoebe tried to kill a smoke detector.  It was a riot.

Just checking in to see what is new.  Good luck during the coming selling season!

Just checking in to see what is new.  Good luck during the coming selling season!